The term “data broadcasting” (also referred to sometimes as “datacasting”) refers generally to the widespread distribution of the same content to a plurality (typically a large number) of subscriber units. Advances in electronic computing and communication technology, particularly wireless communication technology, have enabled data broadcasting techniques to be applied in wireless communication markets to service mobile subscriber units. Examples of such technologies include Digital Audio Broadcast, or Digital Video Broadcast. The content is broadcast to multiple clients simultaneously using the same physical channel (e.g, the same time slot or frequency), thereby efficiently using network resources. Regardless of the number of subscriber units, the server only sends one copy of the content, thus minimizing the impact in the server's capacity.
Conventional data broadcasting systems are push systems, which do not permit users to specify the content that is pushed through the broadcast communication channel. Rather, data broadcasting systems pre-select a number of documents to be broadcasted. Documents are placed in a queue, sometimes referred to as a “carousel” and broadcast sequentially in a rotating manner.
Bandwidth limitations in the wireless communication channel(s) available to data broadcasting services establish a real physical limit to the amount of content that a data broadcasting service can distribute in a given time period. Improved content distribution schemes would enable data broadcasting services to manage limited bandwidth more effectively and to provide improved services to customers.